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Where is the Central Bank of Libya?

Libyans have become accustomed to chaos in a country flooded with weaponry where militias and tribes call the shots, two years after NATO bombing helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi.But the daylight robbery of $55 million from a Central Bank van suggested that Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s cabinet is losing the struggle to provide security and build state institutions.Ten gunmen intercepted the van when it left the airport in Sirte, a former Gaddafi stronghold, snatching the cash flown in from Tripoli for the local central bank branch…

Sirte, a central coastal town near Gaddafi’s birthplace, has escaped the violence rife in cities such as Benghazi in the east, where assassinations and bombings are part of daily life. But the city showcases the lawlessness engulfing postwar Libya after four decades of Gaddafi’s quirky one-man rule.The fledgling army has largely moved out of Sirte, unable to rein in armed bands or the Islamist militants of Ansar al-Sharia which runs training camps nearby, residents say.

Unable to impose security here and in other cities, the government has co-opted former anti-Gaddafi rebels, putting them on the state payroll to guard public buildings or man checkpoints, nominally as part of state security forces.In fact these gunmen report to their own commanders who have their own agendas. Some are close to Islamists like those who briefly grabbed Zeidan from his Tripoli hotel room this month in protest at a U.S. raid to seize an al Qaeda suspect.Other militias pursue tribal interests or smuggle weapons, drugs and anything else that makes money…

[I]nsecurity in the streets is exacerbated by infighting between supporters of Zeidan, a liberal, and his Islamist opponents in the General National Congress, or parliament. “The government is very weak compared with other political forces, criminals and terrorists,” said Libyan political analyst Rami Mussa.

Exploiting the power vacuum, protesters have shut down oil terminals and oilfields around the country. Oil output, the main source for the budget, is down to a fraction of the 1.6 million barrels a day Libya pumped before the uprising against Gaddafi…In the east, disfavored in Gaddafi’s time, tribes and other armed groups demand autonomy and oil wealth. Regional councils have sprung up which want to sell crude bypassing Tripoli.